PRESIDENT ZEDILLO CLOSES FOLDER AFTER SIGNING NEW INDIGENOUS DRAFT LEGISLATION, 1998-03-14 (photo)

Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo closes the folder containing a new draft legislation on indigenous rights after signing it in his private office at the official residence of Los Pinos March 14. The legislation, which will be passed tommorow to Congress for approval, comes after Zedillo expressed dispair at what he called intransigence from Zapatista indigenous rebels in the southern state of Chiapas. The Zapatista political wing, the FZLN (Zapatista Front for National Liberation), said that the government was trying to scrap the 1994 San Andres de Larainzar agreement, which followed the Zapatista uprising in January 1994, and start from scratch. MEXICO CHIAPAS